Eleanor had observed for a day or two that there was an unusual degree of activity among the sailors. They seemed to be getting things into new trim; clearing up and cleaning; and the chain cable one day made its appearance on deck, where room had been made for it. Eleanor looked on at the proceedings, with a half guess at their meaning that made her heart beat.
"What is it?" she asked Captain Fox.
"What's all this rigging up? Why, we expect to see land soon. You like the sea so well, you'll be sorry."
"How soon?"
"I shouldn't wonder, in a day or two. You will stop in Sydney till you get a chance to go on?"
"Yes."
"I wish I could take you the whole way, I declare! but I would not take an angel into those awful islands. Why if you get shipwrecked there, they will kill and eat you."
"There would be little danger of that now, Captain Fox; none at all in most of the islands. Instead of killing and eating, they relieve and comfort their shipwrecked countrymen."
"Believe that?" said the captain.
"I know it. I know instances."